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It was Rufius himself who broke the newsthat my debut novel was long listed for the Polari First Book Prize!

I’m not joking! Tony Leonard who played Rufius with an incredible performance at The Marlborough Theatre in Brighton in October 2016 called to congratulate me as I was sitting in the Snowdrop Pub in Lewes at my Tuesday writers group led by best-selling novelist and writers coach, Siobhan Curham. It was a surreal moment. For established writers a long listing might not be a big deal, but for me it was a dream come true. And of all the lists, Polari was the one I’d wished for. Siobhan recounted her experience of winning her first prize and shot down to the bar insisting on a celebratory drink.

Thank you to the 2017 Judges –
Rufius and I are delighted you enjoyed the book,
by Bacchus!

And thank you to my mentor Martin Goodman and Barbican Press for having the balls to publish a novel that deals with a barbaric and unpalatable period in history, the reverberations of which are still felt in the West today. European culture is but a flicker of Ancient Rome and the consequences of the intolerance and laws that condemned effeminate men to death by public burning in the 4th Century A.D. are still felt today.

What an enjoyable day with the department of Creative Writing at the University of Gloucestershire exploring how research meets the imagination.

There were girls that starved themselves into eels, absinthe fairies, literati suicide notes, invisible sci-fi towers and ancient Roman recipes. Rufius had on his favourite toga!

I’d been invited by the brilliant writer of one of my favourite novels (The Deconstruction of Professor Thrub), D.D. Johnstone and also Course Leader for the MA Creative & Critical Writing.

The University of Gloucestershire is on Campus at Cheltenham Spa. It’s a beautiful leafy campus part of which is a converted convent. Lania Knight (author of Three Cubic Feet) greeted myself and the other two writers on the panel in reception. Daisy Johnson is a short story writer whose debut short story collection, Fen has completely enraptured me and Lesley Ingram is author of ‘Scumbled’, a poetry anthology which has me equally enchanted.

Libby, Lesley, Sarah, Daisy

The lovely Libby McIvor kicked off the questions:
“was it challenging to find the right balance between fact and fiction?”

It was fascinating to listen to the range of approaches we had each taken to our research and how we integrated research into our creative work in a variety of different ways. The question that was most interesting for me was: “Did the PhD process hinder your creative process in anyway?” I would say that if I had not undertaken the rigorous research required by the PhD Rufius would be a very different novel. The PhD gave me a ticket into Classics conferences and the classics community, which I became a part of and meant I had far easier access to some of the most recent research and thinking on Ancient Roman sexuality. Add to that that my second supervisor is an expert in Theology of the fourth century and my thesis developed a theory about a fiction writer’s point of departure from history, which I coined, ‘the pivot of authenticity’, I feel that my creative work only benefitted. The rigour of undertaking my historical research for the novel through the academic process resulted, in my view with a far better end product. So I would say the PhD process was a help, not a hindrance.

After questions from the audience, the three of us were asked to read a short passage from our work. I chose the section in chapter 1 where Rufius disembarks from the boat for the first time in Alexandria. The amount of historical research I undertook to recreate the ancient port of Alexandria (much of which is now underwater due to earthquakes and tidal waves) was extensive and the short excerpt demonstrated how writers use research to build the imaginary worlds they create.

Then off we all marched for a delicious Chinese dinner with the lecturers and students, followed by a fantastic evening event in The Frog and Fiddle pub which had a huge room with an even larger stage dedicated to events where we all read another passage from our books – and were joined by the students. The standard of the students’ work was very impressive. And we all had great fun. Thank you to everyone

Here’s an except from Lesley’s wonderful poem, Absinthe

You anchor the evening
To the stem of your glass
Aware that the whore in me
Will steal your night and leave
A slack morning.

It all started at the Snowdrop Pub in Lewes for The Alternative Miss Snowdrop.

I was on the hunt for another Rufius. So far there had been three – all fabulous, all talented, all with very different performances of the main character of my debut novel (it’s getting a bit like “I’m Sparticus!”) My friend Katuishka Borges (aka The Love Shaman) and I head to the Snowdrop on a stormy August Saturday night for on a mission to find a fourth Rufius.

Kat is Venezuelan and the summer downpour was more like winter for her so we sat inside drinking tea. All of a sudden we heard a voice. The voice was velvet; it spoke of luxury, hedonism and hinted naughtiness. We looked at each other and ran to the window to see who the voice belonged to. Tanya Hide (aka Tony Leonard) introduced the contestants in the pouring rain on the stage outside with the poise of an Oscar-winning starlet in California sunshine.

“Rufius!” We both screamed, spilling tea and getting strange looks from the people at the surrounding tables.

I was delighted that Tony agreed to play Rufius. He couldn’t have been a better choice. Tony is one of the most meticulous actors I have met. He was fascinated by the period and subject matter and researched the costume in detail. We had so much fun bringing Rufius to life.

I’d done a lot of research into the clothes cinaedi would likely have worn and was lucky to have the top classicists in America and Canada advising, but the items Rufius would have worn hung in glass cabinets in Museums. We needed to improvise. Togas were as long as 20 feet. We were lucky to be gifted some material unused from a Glyndebourne costumier … but how did they fold it?

The wig was Tony’s area of expertise and even Rufius agreed it is amazing. Cinaedi likely dyed their hair – Rufius dyed his both red and blonde at different points in the novel. Ancient dyes would probably have looked gaudy and bright and so we settled on orange. Tony amazed me by his attention to detail. We decided that Rufius would have copied the Ancient Roman matrons’ hair fashion of the fourth century and pied his hair up high with a multitude of plaits wrapped around the back in a heavy bun. The overall affect, I think you’ll agree is knock-out.

Adding a hem to the togaTony Leonard rehearsing Rufius

My job was to source the jewellery. Thanks to Lewes Martletts and a couple of boutiques we pulled together some wrist cuffs, and necklaces. Thanks to Penny La Pouse, Brighton’s Erotic Poetess, we found rings. We were going for the Ancient Roman version of bling. It was the overall affect we decided that would have the impact.

Finally the night arrived. I had to dash home from work and just about made it to collect Tony and shoot down to Brighton. We had done a full dress rehearsal so we knew how long it would take to dress Rufius and we managed it break neck speed. Both of us were nervous. It took two attempts and thirty safety pins to get the toga right. Ancient Roman men would have most likely had two slaves to dress them as there is so much material, but we managed it with just the two of us, but we could have done with Apollinos and Cassius to help hold the heavy fabric! On went the Cameo brooch, Rufius favourite item of jewellery and we were ready!

Paul Burston was as dashing as ever. We were first up. I was so focused on Rufius that I’d not given a thought to what I would wear until the day. I decided upstaging Rufius would be like upstaging the bride and so I went for the academic look and donned my reading glasses and a black dress and used the lectern to introduce Rufius with background to the history of the 4th century.

The audience at The Marlborough started applauding wildly as soon as Tony stepped from behind the curtain on to the stage.

He looked stunning. I’d taken my seat in the front row and watched the character that I had spent 10 years developing come to life. It was not the first time I’d been blown away by a Rufius performance, but to see him dressed as he would have been in his favourite clothes, moving around the stage, acting the part must be similar to how proud parents feel watching their little darlings perform in the nativity play at school or win at sports day. This was my baby on stage strutting his stuff – and the audience loved him. A massive THANK YOU to Tony Leonard. You are marvellous.

Next up was Cerys Evans, reading from her latest poem – a talent to watch. Garth Greenwell amazed us all with his detailed dive into the intricacies of desire in his reading from his latest book, What Belongs to You. VG Lee was as on form as ever reading from her latest novel and the glamorous Karen McLeod shocked us all by bounding onto the stage in white knee high socks, sad little trainers, waterproof hoodie tied tight under chin the epitome of square as Barbara Brownskirt, poet laureate of Penge (who writes her poetry at a bus stop in Penge). Sitting holding my pelvic floor as hard as I could to prevent pissing myself laughing next to an ancient Roman in a toga as to be one of the most surreal moments of my life. Thank Bacchus for Pilates!

We hung out in the bar afterwards with the lovely VG Lee, Karen McLeod, actress and model, The Lady Fushia and Richard Peacock. Penny la Pouse, Brighton’s Erotic Poetess (who’d wanted to see what we were up to with her rings) joined us too.

Karen McLeod, Rufius (Tony), Paul Burston, Sarah Walton

We were hounded for a play – I’ve another book to finish, but maybe a play adaptation of Rufius isn’t a bad idea.

Thank you again to the incredible Paul Burston for giving Rufius a stage, City Books and Richard Peacock for his brilliant photos. And thank you to Tony – you’re a star

Inspiration for Rufius

The idea, or rather a seed of an idea, was ignited by days spent poring over a Gnostic Christian manuscript, commonly referred to as the Pistis Sophia, in the British Library in 2004 – which resulted in a voice and the images of the characters whose handwriting scribed the Coptic (Egyptian written with Greek letters) [1]. Whilst procrastinating, I had made a random search of the British Library catalogue when I should have been researching another novel, The Hostess Detective. The search results came up with a manuscript called the Askew Codex MS 5114. This ignited my curiosity. I contacted the curator of the manuscript, Dr Nersessian and requested access to the book. He asked me why. As I knew nothing about the book, I said I was doing research on ‘Gnostic Christian Goddesses’ (the key words I used in the search).

I became fascinated by several sentences in the manuscript which scholars had failed to translate. With a Coptic dictionary compiled by one of the translators and a splattering of undergraduate ancient Greek, I undertook to make my own translation of these sentences. My BA was in Linguistics and I could see that the sentences did not present the expected syntax and that the groups of vowels were often repetitive. The Moscow Library of Foreign Literature was also undertaking a translation of the Askew Codex into Russian and we made contact. By this point I’d come up with the theory that the ‘sentences’ which often proceeded rituals, led by a resurrected Jesus on the Mount of Olives preaching to his disciples, were a form of Christian mantra along the lines of Hindu or Buddhist mantra – and that these groups of sounds had no semantic meaning, but were repeated in order to take the devotees into a trancelike state, or prevent the mind from ‘thinking.’ Dr Nersessian agreed that the mantra idea was plausible.

If these ‘untranslatable sentences’ were early Christian mantra, I wondered which people held this book sacred – how did they use this mantra, and for what end? The writings in the manuscript have been attributed by scholars to early Christian Gnostic groups – suggestions include the Valentinians, the Ophites and, the Sethians, to name a few. Fiction benefits from simplification and so I decided on the Ophites (called the ‘Snake People’ in the novel). I set out to recreate the Ophite group. In fiction, unlike history, one aims at delivering an emotional truth, or a truth that historical speculation alone cannot reach – I wanted to ‘show’ the emotional and experiential spiritual relationship of a group who held these writings sacred; it mattered less which group I chose. The Moscow Library of Foreign Literature invited me to present a paper on how I would do this, which prompted longer hours with the manuscript to ponder how these ‘mantra’ might have been incorporated into ritual practice.

It was after a long day in the Oriental Reading Room in 2004 that I had a vision: the novel, its atmosphere, its urgency and required pace, its main two characters – in a snapshot. Guessing at the pronunciation of Greek letters – αοι αοι αοι (aoi aoi aoi) – I repeated them in the fashion my experience of Buddhist and Hindu meditation had taught me. All of a sudden, I was no longer in the British Library reading room, but in an ancient scriptorium: scrolls were stacked on shelves and between rows of writing desks, and a fat man in a toga rushed towards me with a scroll in his hand saying, ‘take the book and run’. An atmosphere of urgency and impending doom – and smoke filled the scriptorium. He was shouting at a youth in a tunic, who replied: ‘I’m not leaving you’. Love filled the space between them.

Then I was back in the Oriental Reading room with a sensation like jetlag, as if I had travelled a vast distance. My imagination brought something back with me – the voice of Rufius. Read More

Actor Tony Leonard as Rufius – The Marlborough Theatre

Thanks to The Open University and to Jess for making the editorial process such fun. Jessica’s own research is fascinating – you can follow her tweets about art, religion, myth, votives and Italy on Twitter – @jesshughes61

When I was young(er) and lived in Soho (on what was then the only cheap street left), I enrolled on The Complete Creative Writing Course, which novelist Maggie Hamand had just set up. So it was great fun to teach the class at The Groucho Club where I’d sat and scribbled back in the 90s. It made me realise how far I’ve come – and how much I owe to the mentors and teachers I’ve had along the way. It also reminded me how we are perpetual students – I learn so much from teaching. Thank you everyone

What a launch! Martin Goodman, friend, mentor and Founder of Barbican Press (publisher with the balls to back a novel partly inspired by an obscure Latin insult and an even more obscure Coptic manuscript) and I were delighted that Gay’s the Word Bookshop was up for a party. Rufius was very excited to be launched in London’s oldest gay bookshop – although it’s taking him a little bit of time to understand the modern sexual paradigm. He’s still insisting he’s not gay – he’s a cinaedus.

There was a queue outside the bookshop that set off butterflies in my stomach. Rufius was in lights in the window and I heard his voice again, the voice I’ve come to think of as a friend (the type who gate-crashes all the best parties, is a terrible influence but masses of fun): “Oooo, an audience! We’ll give them a show, by Bacchus!”

Olivier award-winning actor, costume chameleon and the first Rufius, Christopher Green (aka Tina C & hip hop grannie, Ida Barr) would step into Rufius’ toga for tonight’s reading. Martin, Chris and I agreed the order of play in a café at the end of the street over a quick gluten-free dinner. Stomachs lined, off we went to Gays the Word.

Animal-free Circus Ringmaster, Richard Peacock greeted me with an enormous bunch of tangerine roses and I had a taste of what it must be like to be a superstar. I felt a little over-whelmed by all the attention, but like Rufius I’m no stranger to playing the hostess. I felt held as friends piled into the little shop as well as members of the public. Uli and Jim were wonderful and so supportive. What a perfect location to host the launch of a novel about the destruction of the Ancient Library of Alexandria – surrounded by what those bishops would certainly consider heretical books. Being a published novelist has been a dream since the age of 13 years of age. Nothing will replace the thrill of holding Rufius in my hands for the first time last year. If that was the birth, this was the christening … which Rufius reminded me comes from pagan origin, possibly a Babylonian ritual.

Rufius was as delighted to see the Petrie Museum crew arrive with Egyptologist John J Johnston at the helm, followed by the ever glam Helen Pike and delightful V&A fashionista, Daniel Milko. Leslie who I’d staggered up Vesuvius with after far one glass of wine too many the night before arrive next, grabbing a handful of copies and demanding signatures. Rufius was in his element – I signed from both of us! Then the cameras were upon me as The Love Shaman, my dear friend, Katuishka Borges played camera woman. I wasn’t sure she’d make it as she’d just arrived back from six months in the Amazon filming the tribes who are losing their land to corporate greed. I introduced her to James Thornton, CEO of Client Earth, the law company with just one client: Earth.

The funniest comment of the night had to be from digital consultant and diver, Diane who I worked with on Digital Identity at the Cabinet Office:

“I thought you’d written a management book – but this is far more interesting!”

Well, I guess that’s the thing about identity – digital by day, ancient papyrus by night is a bit confusing! Although the internet and the Ancient Library of Alexandria have more in common than meets the eye. The internet is the only store of knowledge since the Great Library of Alexandria that has a mission to be fully comprehensive. Let’s hope it stays that way and doesn’t fall foul to fascism and selective dogma as did the libraries of the post fourth century ancient world.

After wine and nattering squashed tight amidst the shelves of so many authors I admire, Martin gave the cue to hit the stage.

After Martin’s fine introduction, I stepped on to the little stage at the front and looked out across the packed room. So many faces, so many friends – I was filled with gratitude to know such a wonderful bunch of talented, kind, fun people. It was a delight to see eminent economist and Director of The Quest, Alan Mulhern at the back of the room who has been a huge support. Novelist and one of my PhD examiners, D.D.Johnston had come up from Gloucester University where he is Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing (for writers, his Online Writing Tips Video Blog is brilliant). It’s always a joy to see him. For laugh-out-loud-funny and erudite, read DD’s novel THE DECONSTRUCTION OF PROFESSOR THRUB. It’s one of my favourite books.
I gave a swish of my tango tailfin – dress designed by Phoebe Serenity Brown from BlackKat Creations – and told the tale of the inspiration for Rufius.

Penny la Pousse was all flirt & fluff as she greeted guests for Rufius’ debut at Brighton Waterstones. As part of the novel was written in the window seat in the bookshop’s travel section, Rufius was right at home. And he rather liked Penny’s dress too – a purple velvet number covered in fuchsia flowers. It was fabulous to see so many Brightonian friends – as well as my wonderful publisher, Martin Goodman from Barbican Press who delivered an eloquent introduction.

Penny formally introduced me with a poem that raised the temperature in the room . Rufius was impressed as were the gentlemen in the audience. I was delighted to see Julian Stevens, Brighton’s talented goldsmith. Rufius is also a fan of his jewels and I was wearing a palladium and blue zircon ring Julian had designed ten years ago based on one of my scribbles. Also Miles from Jefferson Jackson; style queen, Denisa; Toad from 70s Punk band Johnny Moped and local artist Jana Solfronk.

Penny asked what the novel is about. It’s an illicit love Story set in 4C Alexandria, and I then explained why it is described as an illicit. Rufius is a cinaedus, Latin for an effeminate buggeree. Far from the hard, muscular Roman ideal, cinaedi wore make-up, curled their hair, plucked and painted on their eyebrows. They could be thought of as an ancient Roman version of transgender. The laws that condemned these men became more severe under the Christian Emperors. Rufius falls in love with a rent boy called Aeson. However, the affair between Rufius and Aeson is not illicit because of the age gap (in Ancient Rome it was acceptable for young boys who showed physical signs of manhood to be taken as lovers), but because the older man was taking the ‘passive’ or receptive role. The moral judgement is directed towards Rufius’ gender deviance and so Rufius is free of the moral tension that we see in Nabakov’s Lolita – for my aim was to present Ancient Roman sexuality through the Ancient Roman lens (not filtered through a modern sexual paradigm).

“That reminds me of my poem, Red Knickers about men dressing up in their wives’ underwear. Is that a bit like Rufius?” asked Penny la Pousse.

Ancient Romans didn’t wear lacy red knickers, but I’m sure Rufius would have loved a pair! Through the lens of modern Westerners, Rufius presents as transgender – cinaedi wore make up, jewellery and dyed and curled their hair. Ancient Romans accepted the third gender until the rise of Christianity. Orthodox Christians outlawed the third gender and in 391 AD and men who presented as women were condemned to death by public burning.

I then did a short reading to introduce the Waterstones audience to Rufius.

Penny switched the topic to slavery. We talked about the culture of slavery and how Rufius’ family unit included his slaves, who all took the family name of Biblus, as well as the economic implications of slavery. For example, Ancient Romans invented the steam engine, but didn’t commercialise it as they had slaves and so the economics didn’t stack up. Talk of slaves Penny got excited about her poem about S&M and she did a wee reading.

Modern S&M roles are likely as close as Modern Westerners get to understanding (experientially speaking) the Ancient Roman sexual paradigm through our own lens. Modern Homosexual culture still has a sense of the active/ passive framework for defining sexual behaviour – Gaydar, the gay matching website, used to allow you to note whether you were active or passive and to indicate that to potential partners. The closest modern mainstream heterosexual culture gets to it is in the discourse about ‘who wears the trousers’ in a relationship. The ancient Roman sexual paradigm was very much about control and domination. They had strict guidelines about who was active (rich, noblemen) and who was passive (women, slaves and post-pubesent girls and boys). A man like Rufius who chose the passive role would have been ridiculed (as was Julius Caesar who was rumoured to be a cinaedus). However, before the Christian era, cinaedi were accepted to some extent.

Penny, whose poetry is infused with sex – or rather the promise of it, asked me about my experience of writing sex from the perspective of a cinaedus in Rufius. Here’s a short clip on writing sex in fiction.

Penny shifted the conversation to a more serious aspect of the novel: “But it wasn’t just sex those naughty Bishops wanted to control was it?”

Indeed it wasn’t. In the fourth century we see Christian extremism sweep across the Empire. We discussed the fall of paganism, the burning of books, heresies; destruction of libraries and temples. I finished up by reading an excerpt that demonstrates the clash between Theophilus (the Archbishop behind the destruction of the Serapeum which housed a vast chunk of the Ancient Library of Alexandria) and Rufius – which shows the clash between Christianity in its most fascist form and paganism.

Sea shanties, sailor boys and undiscovered horizons set a racy tone for the Sirens of Polari on Sea.

Arts Council funding means Polari is back in Hastings for another cracking Spring season of LGBT words and voices. The line up was very grand with Stella Duffy headlining and Juno Dawson and Fergus Evans … and the rogue of my novel, Rufius Biblus Catamitus.

Thanks to charismatic cultural commentator and Polari Ringmaster, Paul Burston, Rufius and the slaves were all fuss getting the sedan chair ready to shoot down the coast and give a reading. But what to read? Rufius was dead set on the sex chapters, but I was not certain that was such a good idea …

I was first up, which was a relief as my voice, which I’d lost since Halloween (receiving the costume prize at Halloween Polari as Medusa I’d couldn’t even muster a croak). So, what did we read? As it was a Polari crowd, I gave in to Rufius’ nagging and read from chapters 28 & 29. They are the only explicit sex chapters in the novel and I was uncertain whether or not to include them as it is not a pornographic book. After much deliberation, I decided to keep them as they demonstrate the ancient Roman sexual paradigm, which is very different to ours. Seeing the sex from Rufius’ perspective and then from his rent boy’s point of view (Rufiusis written in 1st person, present tense from the view point of three characters) serves to whip off the glasses of our own cultural ideas about sexual norms and takes the reader into the minds and bodies of the characters.

It was my goal that Rufius didn’t simply satisfy the standard stereotype for a cinaedus (an effeminate buggeree), but that the novel showed the messiness and idiosyncrasies of sexuality – as Rufius says: “One’s sexuality is as individual as a fingerprint.” Academics assume all cinaedi fancied manly men, which is logical, but as in real life human sexual preferences are not defined according to strict categories, Rufius likes adolescents on the cusp of manhood, those youths who will become hairy men, manly men like Aeson.

It’s not the easiest thing to read an effeminate man, so I asked the audience to imagine me first as a fat, Roman in a toga with full make up and pencilled on eyebrows, and secondly as a gorgeous ephebe. I told them when to switch.

Next up was Fergus Evans, whose poetry takes the listener deep into the slow motion reality of the layers of awareness that constitute a single moment. Moments in cars having hand jobs in the rain, watching a river and the constant chatter of the brain as one peers out of oneself at the world. His description of the river, the intricate details observed in a moment of sexual intensity evoked the richness of ordinary things and pulled the audience in with him. By the time the break came round, we were lulled into a deep stillness.

The lovely Mike Puxley and Wendy Quelch had come along – and we drank wine served by the gorgeous Lorna Lloyd and chatted about Fergus’ powerful reading.

After the break ‘Queen of Teen’ Juno Dawson set the tone swiftly by commenting that her piece would be in keeping with the ‘hand job’ theme of the evening! Juno writes award-winning teen fiction. The audience was invited to step back in time to first fumbled sessions and self-conscious teen angst as her characters mused over their sexual and gender identities. Juno was wearing a greyhound print dress – two Italian greyhounds face to face. If anyone wondered, it’s from H&M and they also do tee-shirts (I had to ask as I have to have one – Blue & Moon will love it).

Juno, Wendy and I chatted about teen fiction and how it’s changing, the increasingly diverse ways young people can define themselves. Rufius, as you can imagine, is delighted at the increasingly tolerance, and confidence that can offer to young people in the throws of defining their sexual and gender identities. The teenagers in Rufius lived on the cusp of an age in which Christian extremism narrowed and condemned diversity of expression, so it seemed fitting we shared the stage. Juno’s books are a hugely important part of modern Britain’s blossoming of freedom of expression – as well as being extremely entertaining.

Stella Duffy – what a star! I was honoured to be on the same line-up.

Stella read from her novel-in-progress, London Lies Beneath, set in the 19th century about a South London family, whose men are sailors. Stella, herself native of Camberwell, tells us a story within a story as grandfather recounts to his young grand daughter his memories of the night he was caught in a storm on board ship, of how he was set with the fever and to avoid infecting the crew, they put him on a small boat for the night pulled behind the ship. The ship’s doctor came to help him, but he was past the aid of medicine. He doesn’t tell his granddaughter of how the doctor gave him the only other remedy he could: how he passed on his body heat and they made love in the night. He refrained from telling her, as all sailors do, of the discovery of the closeness that arises between men at sea for months, away from wives and families – with only the bodies of men for company and comfort.

Rufius is also a huge fan of Stella Duffy’s Theodora, so we had to give her a copy of Rufius. Stella said she’d wondered when she was researching Theodora who would deal with the material about the fall of the Serapeum. Rufius and I hope Rufius will give her a good ride – and perhaps some of the enjoyment I received from reading her novel about Empress Theodora, upwardly mobile yuppy of the 5th century, an actress and reputed prostitute who rose to fame and married Emperor Justinian.

Thanks to Paul Burston, the fabulous VG Lee and to poet, Anny Knight for the photos (especially the infamous Printworks’ spiral staircase shots)

Brighton and Hove libraries have many literary groups and do a lot to support writers. I’ve been to a number of workshops myself over the years and so was honoured to be invited by the lovely Roger Bluff to deliver a workshop on historical fiction writing to the Hatchery Writers. See Ann Perrin’s blog for more information about the group.

If I achieved one thing in this workshop, it was that the group left with the confidence that they could write historical fiction.

Rufiusis my third novel, although my first published. It nearly didn’t get written due to the challenge of history. It was my belief back in 2003 that historical novelists of the classical period were historians, or with knowledge of that magnitude and schoolgirl Latin and Carry On Cleo were not enough. Of course research was required – and in my case, research was extensive (I did a PhD). However, what I learnt about historical fiction writing was this:

It is the novelists’ decision about their departure from the history

The most important thing is the ‘story’

To draw the reader in is nothing particular to historical fiction, but the usual use of the senses: smell, sound, touch, sight, taste

All historical fiction is anachronistic as it is displaced in time and often in language. However, authentic historical detail is necessary whether a writer is aiming at ‘the appearance of authenticity’, like Alan Massie and Steven Saylor, or whether one is writing anachronistic historical fiction like Evaristo’s brilliant novel, The Emperor’s Babe, or Christoph Ransmayr’s The Last World. But the way in which authentic details are incorporated does not mean that anachronism should be avoided. On the contrary, Evaristo and Ransmayr’s books draw the reader into the world of the novel just as effectively as those writers who aspire to an appearance of authenticity, or plausibility. In Ransmayr’s novel for example, the death of the Emperor is ‘announced by megaphone to the silent empire.’ Within the world of this novel, the mixing of modern technology and ancient history works. As long as the author is consistent with their approach, anachronism can add to the atmosphere and the story.

My thesis dealt with the choices novelists make when deciding where to position what I have called the ‘Pivot of Authenticity’ in fiction: the relationship of the author with history. If you would like to read more about my theory of composition in historical novel writing, please email: rufius.catamitus@aol.com.
Rufius will email you the relevant extract of my thesis (it’s accessible and jargon is explained).

The best way to learn is to write. After talking about my inspiration for writing Rufius (sparked by an ancient manuscript in the British Library), and different approaches to writing historical fiction taken by authors, I suggested a writing exercise.

As we were in Hove, we used old photos of the Palace Pier in the 1900s (before the fire) to give us a springboard into story. I asked the group to not worry about the history of the period, but to describe from the perspective of the character, or narrator of their story, the sights, sounds, tastes, feelings, and smells experienced.

After 20 minutes of scribbling, we shared our work. I was very impressed with the standard. We had a broad range of stories from philandering husbands hot under the collar in old-fashioned coats, to childhood memories of bathing huts – and one remarkable piece by Matthew merged Sci-Fi with historical fiction as his character was chucked out on the Palace pier through a worm-hole. Brilliant pieces, all of which deserved to be worked on more fully. It was no surprise that some of the writers were published or had won early acclaim for their work already.

Afterwards the lovely Hatchery writers took me to a Hove café to continue our conversation about historical fiction. I was very happy that they got so much out of it and have invited me back to teach again.

A productive & fun morning – a special thank you to Hatchery Writers secretary, Roger Bluff

Shakespearean actor Peter Faulkner stepped into Rufius’ toga for the Lewes Waterstones Launch of Rufius in March. Before I launch into the detail, watch the talented Peter as Rufius in this clip – Video of Peter Faulkner as Rufius

The front room of Lewes Waterstones was packed with people squashed and standing behind the seats for the Lewes Launch of RUFIUS. A big thank you to the Waterstones team for the PR. I was honoured to see the poets John Agard and Grace Nichols in the crowd. It had been John’s idea that I approach Waterstones. If you want to see John perform his brilliant Columbus Monologue, he’ll be at Brighton Festival in May.

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Rufius and I were honoured that the Mayor of Lewes, Cllr Susan Murray and her consort, Cllr Robert Murray attended in ceremonial chain. Lewes is blessed with a mayor who supports the arts – as well as being a strong advocate for the environment. Robert asked the question I am often asked – is that a real statue on the front cover? It certainly is – imported from Israel. Here’s a blog about the creation of the cover. I handed it over to the audience to see if anyone recognised the statue. A lady in the front row shouted out, ‘Hercules!’ She wasn’t a classicist as I had suspected. Even though it’s Hercules’ posterior on show instead of his front, it is a famous statue.

After an introduction to the inspiration of the novel, and my vision in the British Library in 2004 sparked by the Askew Codex (commonly known as the Pistis Sophia), I moved on to the facts (or what we can deduce from what survives) of history. Eunapius’ Lives of the Philosophers and Rufinus’ Ecclesiastical History are the two surviving accounts of the riots leading up to the destruction of the Temple of Serapis (which housed a vast chunk of the Great Library of Alexandria) in 391 AD. Both the Christian and Pagan accounts of the destruction of the Serapeum by the Nicene Christian mob were in such stark opposition to each other that I took the liberty of assuming neither were accurate, but that the truth lay somewhere in between.

I showed the audience a fragment from a 6th century Alexandrian World Chronicle (held by the Moscow Library of Foreign literature) showing images of the Bishop of Alexandria, Theophilus who was behind the riots, and the gold-diademed Priests of Serapis, the guardians of the Temple of Serapis and responsible for setting the grain taxes. It was the god Serapis who was believed to make the Nile flood annually, and as Egypt’s grain was essential to feed the Empire, it was a very wealthy institution. Money was at the root of divinity in 4th century Alexandria it seems.

Rufius was by this time itching to speak, and so I introduced the cinaedus, the anti-hero of the novel, and explained the laws that became more severe under the Christian Emperors and in 390 AD resulted in a law condemning cinaedi (effeminate men) to death by public burning. This period of Christian extremism not only resulted in the destruction of temples, heretics, books of mathematics, astrology and heresy, but also the condemnation of men of non-normative sexual and gender orientation. Men like Rufius would have suffered, but Rufius manages to keep his sense of humour!

In this extract Peter Faulkner reads from Chapter 1 – Rufius has just arrived in Alexandria and stepped off the boat. He’s not happy as he’s been blackmailed into exile from Rome by the Archbishop of Rome, Damasus (now Saint Damasus, or Damasus the Ear-tickler, or Damasus the Butcher as history has also recorded him on account of his extortion of Roman matrons’ fortunes and the massacre of Christians who followed his opponent in his fight for the papal throne).

After that we had more questions about Ancient Alexandria, my vision in the British Library reading room, and the destruction of the Great Library, as well as a book signing. The lovely Angela Whitney who has been a great support during the writing of the novel was first in line. Thanks to Jana Solfronk for the pen (I’m not used to book signings!)